DNA links man to murder in 1988

Harper was serving two years in prison for a 2007 Redding bank robbery.

REDDING, CA - It’s been nearly 22 years since the partially clothed body of a 43-year-old Redding woman was found in Caldwell Park.

Today, her accused killer is due to begin standing trial for her death.

Jury selection is scheduled to start today in the trial of Brian Harper, 40, who was linked last year through DNA evidence to the murder of Judith Hasselstrom.

Redding police announced in May 2009 that they had linked Harper, who is also known as William Duane Leiferman, to Hasselstrom’s long-unsolved murder through unspecified DNA evidence.

It was the first time that such evidence apparently cracked a cold-case murder in Redding, police said at a news conference.

The big break in the case came while Harper was serving a two-year prison sentence at Corcoran State Prison in Kings County for a 2007 robbery at the US Bank on Pine Street in Redding.

A DNA sample, which is routinely collected from prisoners and entered into a statewide database, provided the connection to the case, and RPD investigators then went to Corcoran State Prison to interview him.

After initially denying any knowledge of the murder, police said Harper admitted to the killing when he was confronted with the DNA and fingerprint evidence.

Harper, however, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Hasselstrom and is being represented at trial by Tim Pappas, Shasta County assistant public defender. Harper remains in Shasta County jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

Prosecutors allege that Harper murdered Hasselstrom during a rape.

Hasselstrom’s partially clothed body, loosely covered with bamboo, was found by a man picking blackberries on Aug. 7, 1988, near the Sacramento River behind what was then the Redding Museum and Art Center in Caldwell Park.

Officers found blood and fingerprints on the bamboo stalks. That evidence was collected and kept on file, but no matches were found at that time.